ABSTRACT
This chapter will provide an overview of EU member states’ perspectives vis-à-vis the southern Mediterranean as a geopolitical space and analyse how Mediterranean, northern and eastern – i.e. non-Mediterranean – EU member states’ representation and positioning have evolved over the last almost six decades in the framework of their EU membership. It is argued that the north–south divide in Mediterranean-related EU foreign policy making is a function of EU enlargement and the incorporation of countries with differing and, at times, even conflicting foreign policy preferences and interests. The chapter demonstrates that throughout the first three decades of European integration, division lines between member states revolved around, by and large, a rather simplistic and supposedly antagonistic ‘pro-Israel vs. pro-Arabs’ dichotomy whereas the accession to the EU of Spain and Portugal in 1986 was the true starting point for the emergence and rather rapid manifestation of the north–south divide. In recent years, this divide is still underlying and thus impacting Mediterranean-related EU foreign policy making. However, some signs, and in particular growing awareness for, and thus interest in, developments in the southern Mediterranean among non-Mediterranean member states, can be identified that may hint at a potential weakening of this imbalance of preferences and interests.
